I Wanna Be Persuaded

After your faithful correspondent's post regarding Fanny Price the ever lovely Lady Nib informed me that Fanny could not possibly be my favorite Jane Austen heroine and that I could not love her. I could respect her, but not like her because she was so darn "still." I considered telling her to take a gander in the looking glass, but refrained since she had a skillet in her hand at the time. Fanny is my fave because she has the qualities that make a good person and she doesn't blow a bugle about it.

Anne Elliot comes in a close second. Anne is the character that is closest to real life. She's got a wicked streak in her (she listens to gossip with interest), and she has been influenced by those around her and has regretted it.

When the novel Persuasion opens Anne is about twenty-seven years old (pretty close to being an old maid for her class at the time), lives with her father and older sister, and has regrets about passing up a marriage proposal from Wentworth (who was at the time of the proposal was a young naval officer) under pressure from her family and her friend Lady Russell. She seems to be the only one in the Elliot household who has a sense of how to get on with life. Her father has spent his money foolishly and is apparently an example of the target audience of the eighteenth century version of Maxim magazine. He is a man who values appearance over content. His favorite reading is the List of Peers, which contains his name as a Baronet. The older sister, Elizabeth, is much the same as the father in her self regard despite the fact that at thirty-one, she is not married and there are no prospects in sight. The house in which they live is full of mirrors so that Sir Elliot and Elizabeth can gaze on their uniqueness while their money drains away.

Anne, on the other hand, takes care of business. She is not particularly happy living with her father and sister, but she makes the best of a rather dreary situation. Imagine yourself living with a couple of people who considered themselves to be supermodels and thought the world owed them a living because they cut fine figures (in their own minds).

I won't bother to recount the plot of the story because, to be honest, you should have read it by now. But here are the things that are good about Anne Elliot. She does what has to be done. She respects her family even if she doesn't like them much. She doesn't allow herself to be turned by flattering words. She regrets some past actions, but doesn't dwell on them. She sees through the surface to the core most of the time. She is able to overlook a lapse of a man she loves (Captain Wentworth) and see that a life cannot be defined by a stumble. This may be due to the fact that she realizes that she has stumbled.

I assess Jane Austen's characters using what I call the Ukulele Test. Imagine, for a moment, that each of the characters, in turn, come upon a servant or a beau playing a ukulele:

Elizabeth Bennett: "How amusing. It's too bad it's not a violin."

Elinor Dashwood: "Huh?"

MaryAnne Dashwood: "How romantic! It's so nobly savage!"

Emma Woodhouse: "I wonder if there are any wahines in the county I can hook this fellow up with. Or maybe Jane Fairfax will do."

Fanny Price, shyly tapping her foot to the music: "I wonder if he can play 'Lo! He Comes With Clouds Descending?'"

Anne Elliot: "Five foot two, eyes of blue, hootchy, hootchy, hootchy koo. Has anybody seen my gaaaaal?"

Anne Elliot takes life as it is. She's been knocked down, albeit she's not living in Gin Lane turning tricks for a sixpence. But in the Austen world she's been badly served by her family and best friend. While she doesn't smile about it, she gets on with it. She's the most realistic, in the modern sense, of the Austen characters, and I think that she is probably a reflection of the author in later life. And Anne ends up marrying a sailor: not always a bad thing. The ever lovely Lady Nib married a swab jockey who had no percentage in a prize and has not complained overmuch.

If you have neither the time nor inclination to read the book Persuasion you may want to consider watching the video starring Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds (the man born to have sideburns). It's not quite as faithful to the book as is the old BBC version, but it captures the sense of the book better.

Next week: Who knows?